Cold War

• World War II is over

• Public wants troops home but Truman

wants to keep them in Europe & Asia

• Eventually reduced from 12 million to 3

million

• People start spending money

• Slight inflation and then union / labor

problems, but economy will eventually

boom

• Returning soldiers want to have families –

Baby Boomers are born

• 1945 – Yalta Conference – Superpowers

had agreed to leave occupied countries

when war was over. Stalin promised to have

free elections in Eastern Europe

• This did not happen

• Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania are kept by USSR

• a puppet regime is installed in Poland and then other nations

• political opponents shot, borders were sealed so people couldn’t escape

• 1948 – 7 Eastern European nations become Soviet Satellites

• Yugoslavia is independent of USSR but controlled by dictator Marshall Tito

• Containment Policy – appeasement failed

before WWII so now we would try to

contain the Communists and not let them

take over anywhere else

• 1947 – USA sends $400 million to Greece

and Turkey to help fight against

communists who wanted to take over there

• Truman Doctrine – “I believe it must be the

policy of the US to support free peoples

who are resisting attempted subjugation by

armed minorities or outside pressures”

Marshall Plan

• 1947 – Secretary of State George Marshall

• Over 3 years we gave $12 Billion to 16

nations in Western Europe

– 1) help Europe recover

– 2) stop communism

– 3) ensure healthy trade partners for the USA

• Germany split in half

• East Germany – Communist

• West Germany – Democracy

• Berlin Airlift – 1948 -1949

• Berlin becomes a city split in two – West & East, but it itself is in Eastern Germany

• Stalin blockades all routes to West Berlin

• We airlifted Food and supplies to them for over a year

• Stalin gives in and reopens routes

• USA, Canada, Iceland and 9 other West European States form NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) – pledged to defend each other

• 1955 – Soviet Union forms Warsaw Pact

• 1949 Russia explodes its first Atom Bomb

Israel

• May 1948 Declared

it’s independence

• Recognized by

Truman

• David Ben-Gurion 1st

prime minister

• Democracy

• Jewish

• Arabic Muslim neighboring countries immediately go to war with Israel

• They lose

• Several wars fought since then – Jews are undefeated

• 1967 East Jerusalem retaken

• Most countries still want to destroy Israel today

• Constantly attacked by terrorists since the Intifadah

PLO

• Palestinian Liberation

Organization

• Yasser Arafat (now dead)

• Islamic refuges from the wars

• Israel offered to take them back,

they refused

• Other Muslim countries will not

take them in because they want

them to be a thorn in the side of

the Jews

• Constantly uses terrorist attacks

China

• Civil War that started before WWII continues

• Mao Zedong – communists

• Jiang Jeishi (Chiang Kai Shek) – nationalists

• Mao wins

• Great Leap Forward

(1958-62) – total

communism

• Agricultural Cooperatives

– People no longer

allowed to live in private

homes, children taken by

the state

• Industry declines, food

shortages – millions die

• Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976)

• Purge of any non-communist or

western thought, supported by the

youth

• Many more die

• 38-70 million Chinese died total under

Mao

Back to the USA…

• Congress forms HUAC – House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947, started investigating Hollywood

• 1948 HUAC investigates Alger Hiss, a former State Department official – he was a spy for the Soviets

• 1950 – Klaus Fuchs, worked on A-Bomb in Los Alamos confessed to being a spy, identified Ethel & Julius Rosenberg, both spies – they were executed in 1953

• 1950 – Senator Joseph

McCarthy says he has

list of 200 names,

never actually shows

anyone the list

• Popular for about 4

years

• June 25, 1950 – North Korea invades South Korea

• UN (USA) goes to the aid of South Korea

• Chinese enter the war

• MacArthur accuses Truman of fighting a limited war (he was)

• 1952 – Eisenhower elected (Ike), said “I shall go to Korea”

• Ike secretly tells NK and China that he’ll use nukes

• NK agrees to set border at 38th parallel

• John Foster Dulles –

Sect. State, came up

with policy of Massive

Retaliation

• 3rd world uprisings start to occur

• Stalin starts contest to see who can hold

their breath the longest, new Soviet leader is

Nikita Khrushchev

• Our relations with Soviets slightly better

• 1960, U-2 Spy plane shot down over

Russia, Ike doesn’t apologize

• US economy is up

• TV hits the nation

• Rock & Roll – mix of black blues and

gospel and white country music

• Elvis

• “If I could find a white man who had the

Negro sound and the Negro feel I could

make a million dollars.” Sam Phillips

• Sputnik – 1957 Soviets launch first man-

made satellite

http://www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/sputnik/index.html

1960

• Nixon (R) vs. Kennedy (D) TV debates

• JFK wins by 120,000 votes

• Massive Retaliation changes to Flexible

Response

• 1961 – Peace Corp created

Bay of Pigs • 1959 – Cuban gov. overthrown by Fidel

Castro – communist, signed trade agreement with USSR

• Ike breaks off trade with Cuba

• CIA planned to take Cuban refugees & train them to invade Cuba and start rebellion

• JFK takes over and approves

• April 17, 1961 they invaded

• JFK didn’t approve air strike and no popular uprising happened in Cuba so it failed horribly

Berlin Wall

• 1961 – Khrushchev orders Wall built to

separate East from West and keep the

people from escaping into the West.

• 1963 – JFK goes to West Berlin and gives

famous speech pledging our support of a

free Berlin

Cuban Missile Crisis

• Oct 16, 1962 – Soviets put nukes in Cuba

• Advisors want an air strike

• JFK goes on TV and explains situation to

the people, announced a blockade of Cuba

until missiles are removed

• Oct 22 – Soviet ships approach our ships

and then turn back

• Oct 24 – Made secret deal with Soviets,

they would remove their missiles if we

removed ours in Turkey and promised not

to attack Cuba

JFK’s domestic policy

• Tax Cuts

• Urban renewal, fighting poverty – failed

• Space program boosted to beat Russia to the

Moon – 1969 Neil Armstrong lands on the

Moon for the USA

• Nov 22, 1963 – JFK campaigning in Dallas,

Texas

• He is assassinated

• Lee Harvey Oswald blamed

• He is then shot by Jack Ruby

• Conspiracy theories still strong today

• Lyndon Baines Johnson becomes president

LBJ

• Wants to Build the “Great Society”

• Wins election in 1964

• Declares War on Poverty – Office of Economic Oppression is created

• War on Poverty shifts us toward Socialism, lots of money spent, failed to reach its goals

• Civil Rights Act of 1964 – employees

couldn’t deny you a job because of race,

sex, or religion

• Supreme Court – Chief Justice Earl Warren,

Judicial Activism